April 14

“Look ye out therefore. brethren. from among you seven men of good report. full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.” Acts 6:3

The occasion was a contingency which led the Church to institute relief for the poorer saints. That urgent institution of social service was clearly blessed of God, but it was of a temporary nature.

Do you exclaim, “How good if it had continued?” Only one who does not know God would say that. l-lad those relief measures been prolonged indefinitely, they would certainly have veered in the direction of selfish interests. once the spiritual influence at work at their inception was removed. It would have been inevitable.

When material things are under spiritual control, they fulfill their subordinate role. Released from that restraint. they quickly gravitate toward worldly standards and goals. The Church of God, however, is different. She never ceases to be dependent on the life of God for her maintenance.

April 13

“Ye are in our hearts to die together and live together.” 2 Corinthians 7:3

Paul was one whose whole being could be involved in the words he wrote. In a moral crisis such as the one he had to deal with at Corinth he could not just dash off a letter. What he wrote was wrung out of his heart through pain and tears. He was not like one who speaks with an unknown tongue, with the word coming in and going out without so much as touching the thoughts of his heart.

There will always be a human element in our work for God, whether it be counseling or the preaching of the Word. Unless the counsel we give or the word we preach is capable of causing us real joy or real anguish of heart, we might as well be dictating machines, first recording every word faithfully and then playing it back verbatim. No, God delights to use ordinary, sensitive men and women as his messengers.

April 12

“The anointing which ye received of him abideth in you . . . his anointing teacheth you concerning all things.” 1 John 2:27

The anointing of the Spirit is God’s gift to every babe in Christ. When we received Christ as Head we received the anointing—indeed the absence of it would be serious evidence that we were not yet united to him.

John shows us this anointing as an inward thing, conveying even to those babes in Christ the teaching of the Scriptures “concerning all things.” Herein lies the simplicity of the life of God’s children. There is no need for so much questioning.

Disobedience to the anointing will very soon give us a bad time with the Lord, whereas the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. It is not a question of feeling or comparison, but of an inquiry Godward: “Does the Spirit witness life? Does he assure me of the Father’s good pleasure in this step?” That is the only safe test.

April 11

“And she called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 2:10

Had Moses not been drawn out of the water, Israel might have remained in bondage, It was his exodus from death in the Nile which made possible Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Triumphant over Egypt because never in its bondage, he became God’s instrument for delivering his people from Egypt’s king.

In this, of course, he is a wonderful figure of Christ our Redeemer, who voluntarily identified himself with us to the extent of becoming one of us, and yet never knew bondage to Satan or the world. By his exodus from death he has made possible our exodus from bondage. And he it is who leads us on in our pilgrim way to God’s prepared inheritance.

April 10

“The seven golden lampstands [margin] are seven churches.” Revelation 1:20

In Revelation 2 and 3, we are shown the Son of man moving among the lampstands and affirming the individual responsibility of each to himself.

Our eyes, following his, readily detect the many failures in the churches; but has it occurred to us that John nowhere distinguishes between the churches that are right and the churches that are wrong? For all their faultiness, he writes of them as the Lord himself still sees them: namely, as “seven golden lampstands,” seven candlesticks all of gold.

What God is doing through men is eternal—not just something for ten or twenty years. What God has in view he will never abandon, for the very good reason that he himself never changes.

A person who cannot afford to wear true pearls buys paste beads and thinks of them as imitation pearls. But to the one who has real pearls there is no such thing as imitation pearls. To her there are not real pearls and false pearls; there are only pearls.

April 9

“One that ruleth over men righteously, that ruleth in the fear of God . . .” 2 Samuel 23:3

David is so often called in Scripture “King David” because he was a true king in spirit as well as in title. He was a king at heart. When a giant threatened Israel, Saul trembled. and so did all the people. Only David was unafraid. There is no fear in the heart of a king.

Ah, but David feared God. Saul became envious and persecuted him, driving him into exile. Then, on at least two occasions, David found Saul at his mercy and had the opportunity of killing him. Nevertheless, without a command from God he would not lift a finger against his oppressor. Whoever cannot control his own spirit is no king. A true king is a king under all circumstances: he reigns everywhere.

April 8

“There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.” Isaiah 39:4

Hezekiah was the prosperous king of a historic little country. The king of Babylon was the ruler of a growing powerful one. His congratulations to Hezekiah on the occasion of the latter’s miraculous recovery from illness seemed thus genuinely flattering.

Hezekiah felt his stature enhanced by them: he was mixing with the great ones. Because his vanity had been thus boosted, he betrayed himself into a foolish exposure of all his treasures.

Like him, we are all too ready to be glad when attention is paid to us, whether by men or by God. If one soul is saved or healed when we are involved, or if people are helped by something we have said, then we are flattered and begin to expose the sacred treasures of God by recounting them to others. But God, through his prophet, soon made it clear to Hezekiah that such behavior leads only to loss. Let us seek grace, rather, to be silent before him.

April 7

“And he said unto him. Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

Suppose that this malefactor who was crucified with Christ had lived on after he had believed in the Lord. Suppose he had come down from the cross and lived for several decades more.

Let us further suppose that during those years his work had been ten times more than that of Paul, that his love had grown ten times more than John’s, and that he had brought ten times more people to Christ than Peter did. Would it have made any difference if he had gone to heaven then, rather than on the day on which he was crucified? Would he have been any worthier of his place there after all those years?

All who have tasted the grace of God know that he would not have been one whit worthier than when he entered Paradise on that first day. Qualification for heaven is founded on Christ’s “It is finished.” No one can add anything to his work of redemption.

April 6

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 1 John 2:17

Our deliverance from the world begins, not with our giving up this or that but with our seeing, as with God’s eyes, that it is a world under sentence of death, it has no future.

Suppose the government decides to close a certain bank. Will you hasten to deposit into it a large sum of money in order to save the bank from collapse? No, not a cent more do you pay into it, once you hear that it offers no prospects. And we may justly say of the world that it is under a decree of closure.

Babylon, an impressive figure of world power, fell when her champions made war with the Lamb, and when by his death and resurrection he who is Lord of lords and King of kings overcame them (Revelation 17:14). There is no future for her. We still go on living in the world and using the things of the world, but we can build no future with them, for everything belonging to this world is under sentence of destruction.

April 5

“And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? but if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory. . .?” 1 Corinthians 4:7

When the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, the crowds shouted in acclamation. Let us suppose for a moment that the colt, upon hearing the cry of hosanna and seeing the branches on the road, should turn to the Lord and ask, “Is this cry for you or for me?” or should turn to the ass, its mother, and say, “After all, l was the one chosen; so I am nobler than you.” It would be evident that the colt did not recognize the One who rode upon it.

Many of us who are God’s servants are just as foolish. God’s sovereign choice of whom he may use reflects no credit on us at all. It is he whom we uplift who is to be praised. The shouts of hosanna are never for us, nor are the palm branches, though we should discover them beneath our feet. And as for us fools who would say, “I am better than you”—one day we shall wake up to the truth and be utterly ashamed of ourselves.

April 4

“Where then is the glorying? It is excluded.” Romans 3:27

We shall best understand the call of Abraham if we see it in its proper setting. The nations all around had not only forgotten God, but were idolaters. The whole world worshiped false gods, and Abraham’s family was no exception. In this Abraham was very different from Abel, Enoch, and Noah, who seem to have been men of backbone, strikingly different from all those around them.

They stood out against the stream and refused to be dragged along by it. Not so Abraham. He was indistinguishable from those around him. Were they idolaters? So was he. God however, chose him. It was clearly not in Abraham’s moral character that we must seek the reason for this choice, but in God himself.

If Abraham had not been just the same as all the rest, then in looking back he might have prided himself on his difference. But he was one of them. As with you and me, the difference lay in God and not in the man. So I ask you: Who should receive the glory?

April 3

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Ephesians 3:17

The life of the Christian resembles the situation in God’s tabernacle of old. There the outer precinct was a scene of bustling activity, the inner sanctuary a place of stillness. A great number of Levites were needed to prepare the many offerings and must have filled the court to overflowing from morning till night: but in the Most Holy Place there was not a man to be found.

The screen of the outer court must frequently have parted to let people in: but the veil before the Holiest hung quite still, undisturbed by the entry of anyone. Outside, the din and movement spoke of busy ritual service; inside there remained a quiet place apart.

Such is the Christian life. Without, you may be in constant touch with people, yet within be undisturbed. The outward busyness need provoke no ripples in the spirit. And since you live before God in constant communion with him inwardly, you have what is needed for the outward occupation of serving men who seek and need him.

April 2

“His heart is fixed, trusting in Jehovah. His heart is established.” Psalm 112:7-8

From start to finish the Christian experience is a journey of faith. Through it we come into possession of a new life, and through it we walk by that new life. We live by faith and not by joy. Joy is wonderful, but it feeds our sensations and lures us into seeking the things above only at times of excitement. Should our blissful feelings cease, our interest wanes. That is not the walk of faith.

Our feelings are always changing. He is the same God everyday, be it cloudy or sunny. Are we trusting in the up-and-down existence of our feelings, or is our faith anchored in the Unchanging One?

April 1

“Tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.” 1 Timothy 5:13

Several things about this matter of speech deserve our attention. In the first place, we should consider the kind of talk we enjoy listening to. In this way we can get to know ourselves.

Do people come to us because they find that they can pour all the latest gossip into our ears? The sort of talk we relish indicates the kind of people we are. In the second place. We should observe what tales we most readily credit. We are mostly more gullible in one direction than in others, and the direction of our gullibility betrays our innate weakness. Are we quick to believe the slanders of talebearers? People naturally bring supply to demand. Do we show them that it is unwelcome?

But it is those who need our help who really test us. Do people find in us those to whom they can confide their real heart problems and be met with understanding and wise counsel? Are we sensitive enough, and close enough to God, for that?